Time
by Lord Tuxedo
Summary: A short practice in imagery and motifs. Entitled after the predominant theme. Feedback would be appreciated!


******Disclaimer:** Any and all publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are properties of their respective owners.

**Edit Notes: **Fixed minor grammatical errors and that one sentence that was just a jumbled mess of words.

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**Time**

Link squeezed his eyes shut, blinded by the bright rays of sun that stabbed at him from above. A wave of heat accompanied the light, causing his exposed skin to sizzle and hiss. The sand beneath him gave way and he sank up to his ankles. The accursed grains filled his boots and hair. Breathing was difficult. The sweltering air seemed to suck everything out of his lungs. Link stood gasping for a moment, trying to get used to all the sensations.

He hated the desert. The heat was the worst. Death almost seemed preferable to it. At least dead, he wouldn't feel like he was being roasted alive. It sucked the energy from him, slowly, making every step an army's worth of effort. His sword, his shield, the mail armor he wore; everything weighed down on him, as if determined to make him lie in the sand for an eternity.

His heart skipped a beat, and dizziness set in. Suddenly, time jumped forward, and he found his face being burned by white-hot sand. Unable to work up the strength to stand, he stayed there, content to stare blankly at the dunes. The dazzling yellow of the sand and the endless blue of the sky blurred together. Link was unable to remember where he was. Exhausted, he closed his eyes.

Link could not tell if time was passing. He could not tell what time was. Seconds, minutes, hours, millennia, they all blended together into a short pause that lasted an eternity. Time did not exist, only sand and heat.

A breeze, barely detectable, tickled his nose. It was wonderful. So cool, fresh, a breeze otherworldly. Salt and mist mixed together, the smell of ocean spray and endless adventure. It was such a pure and endless breeze, one that existed only fleetingly in time.

Unsure of reality, Link got to his knees. He smelled the air longingly, pleading for the breeze to stay with him. It circled him again, hovered in front of him, then pulled away, coaxing him up.

Hazy, Link opened his eyes. Before him hovered the ghostly figure of a woman. A spirit of life itself, she carried the breeze with her. Waves splashed behind her, spraying salty water into his face. The crash and roar of the water filled his ears; he could feel the rumbling beneath him. It was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen.

The woman beckoned him toward her. Toward the inviting coolness of her skin and the subtle touch of her breath. With an enormous effort of will, Link pushed himself to his feet. He shuffled toward her through the sand, determined to reach her.

A stumble. A fall. The woman still waited. Feeling spent, Link collapsed back into the sand. Another eternity.

A slender finger lifted his chin up. The woman stood above him, smiling. Her hand was extended toward him, offering a way up, away from the scorching sand. Mustering what little he had left, Link took the hand and pulled himself to his feet. The woman smiled at him. She was gone.

Confused, Link looked around. No trace of the woman remained. The breeze had left him, and he was stranded back in the desert, alone. The cool air was replaced with the withering heat; the water dissolved back into sand. Back to nothing. Back to the desert.

Tears welled up in Link's eyes, their precious water evaporating the instant it saw the sun. The feeling of the sea had been so real, so alive, that it couldn't have been an illusion. The ocean oasis _had _to exist. Link desperately looked around him, searching for the sea. Nothing. Nothing but barren desert for as far as the eye could see.

Not even cacti existed in the wasteland. Only sand, sky, and time itself. His hope drained and his energy exhausted, Link fell back to the brilliantly fine grains and closed his eyes. Another eternity. A time immeasurable by both gods and mortals. Time enough to erode civilizations to dust, mountains into valleys… oceans into sand. The sun did not move.

The breeze returned. Stronger than before, more forceful, it took on no other form than the movement of air, and yet it seemed even more intoxicating than ever. Bleary, Link reopened his eyes. Two enormous sand dunes that rose higher than the sky itself lay before him. Above, below, beside; everything around it was sand. Sand that flashed gold and white in the sun. Except…

Link saw patterns in the area between the dunes. Rubble, eroded and colored with gold grain, made up formations of thriving industry. Crates, warehouses, machines and tools; all lay strewn about without order, all colored the same golden yellow that flashed brilliantly in the eternal sun.

A pier. He had been right. The ocean existed. New energy, born by hope of survival, of a way out of the accursed desert, flooded his body. Link hastily stood and made for the pier as fast as he could muster. He dashed - an awkward, shuffling dash - for what seemed like hundreds of miles. His muscles screamed in protest, drowning out every other sound. His lips, cracked and bloodied as they were, pleaded for water.

A lifetime later, and the pier seemed no closer than it was when he started. The energy left him; hope had deserted. The desert was a cruel place. A barren, empty plain, devoid of everything but sand and heat, it took pleasure in offering travelers fantastical illusions that outshined any created by magic, and then yanking them away again once they seemed within reach.

Link looked down in defeat. He was going to die here. Alone in the desert. A failure of a Hero.

A blast of the ocean breeze slammed into his body, throwing him onto his back. His head hit wood, hard. Blotchy red stars appeared before his eyes, twinkling in a bloody and disorienting way. The wind above him continued to blow, cool and refreshing.

Link slowly, painfully, rolled onto his stomach and stood, facing the way he came. He was between the dunes, amid the rubble. On the pier. Sand blew through the golden valley and into the desert, traveling on the wings of the ocean wind. Link savored the moment, refreshed by the cool and salty air. Slowly, his limbs stopped aching; energy flooded his body. Slowly, Link turned around.

His breath was snatched away, whether from the wind or the magnificence of the sight, he was unsure. The sea stretched to the horizon in all directions, its motion glittering in the sunlight. Golden waves filled the sea, their white tipped crests blowing across the ocean like a desert blizzard. Brown and gold islands lay scattered near the shore with ships sailing between them, a timeless testament of the ages. The wind whistled by, mourning the passage of time.

Once, this was a place beauty, but no more.

He stood forlorn on the pier, staring out over the sand sea. The golden colors of the sand formed chords rich and full, remembering an era long past, but never forgotten. The wind continued to play its melody.

Link gazed over the horizon, hoping beyond hope for a sight, a glimpse, of the lost beauty the desert mourned. And there, through the waves and across the sea, Link found it. The heart of the desert; a glitter of light; a purple star. A time long past, and one yet to come.

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**Author's Notes: **What is this I don't even.


End file.
